Pt. 8 in ACN’s “Interview Insights” Series
By Past President Elaine Shein
The phone rings. You answer it. Someone has just asked you to take part in a survey, and you think, what the heck, I’ve got a few minutes. This is only the 1,048th time someone has called, and you already turned down 1,047 of those queries.
Maybe there will be some benefit for someone to hear your honest opinion about a product, a politician, an event, or whether you really want to win that tropical cruise someone is offering.
Pretty quick, as you listen to the questions, you realize there is something discomforting about the call. The questions seem leading. Certain words make you uneasy because those are not words you would use and really skew how someone would interpret the answer later. You cringe — and decide you want to get out of the call as fast as possible because you think it’s too biased.
Click.
We’ve all gotten these calls. Some are better than others. During election time especially, we get flooded with these calls.
However, there is a lesson to learn from these calls. What made you cringe? Why did you not trust that caller? What made you feel the whole exercise was biased and subjective?
Now apply that lesson to how people think about and react to leading questions you ask them.
Some good example of leading questions and how to avoid them can be found at https://www.questionpro.com/blog/leading-questions/. One example given was the question, “Do you always consume fast food?” and how it will affect someone’s answer. What if the person has fast food once or twice a week? The source will probably say no — because of discomfort on the way it was worded. You would gain more useful information by asking, “How often do you eat fast food?”
Even though the article is about doing market research, it can also be applied to journalists and communicators doing interviews.
The article said there are different types of leading questions. I’ve tweaked some examples to be more relevant to us.
“Leading questions based on assumption.” (An ag example: “How much did you enjoy the rodeo your family enjoyed attending yesterday?”) You’re assuming the family had enjoyed the rodeo. Better: “Share what it was like for your family and you at the rodeo.”
“Leading questions based on interlinked statements.” (An ag example: “Most farm laborers hate not getting overtime pay for working more than 8 hours a day … What do you have to say about it?”) Better: “What is your opinion on farm laborers and the issue of overtime pay?”
“Leading questions based on a direct implication.” (An ag example: “If you enjoyed that county fair, will you attend other county fairs like it?”)
“Leading questions with coerciveness.” (An ag example: “Your experience using that new herbicide was satisfactory, wasn’t it?”)
“Leading questions with tagging.” (As the article explained, this means the “question includes a phrase to prompt respondents to answer and most often include negative elements” and included such phrases as “don’t you,” or “isn’t it” or “wasn’t it.”
In an article on https://newsliteracymatters.com/2020/11/03/q-what-exactly-is-loaded-language-and-how-should-journalists-handle-it/, focused on “loaded language”, there were some examples of what media is doing or should attempt to do. This could apply to stories, audio or video but should also be thought about when doing interviews in the first place.
NPR Ethics Handbook is mentioned for how it aims to be neutral with language. Updated last year (more recent than that article) NPR’s handbook now states, “We place a high value on earning the respect and trust of all sides when reporting on complex or controversial subjects. That means we stick to facts and to language that is clear, compelling and neutral. We avoid loaded words preferred by a particular side in a debate. We write and speak in ways that will illuminate issues, not inflame them.” (https://www.npr.org/about-npr/688177789/fairness#fairnessinreportingandinterviewing)
Newsliteracymatters.com also quoted Roy Peter Clark from the Poynter Institute. For those who don’t know Clark, in a blog last year he noted he has done writing workshops for journalists for more than 40 years, worked with news organizations in more than 40 states and also on five continents.
The newsliteracymatters.com site noted Clark “says he asks himself these six questions when so-called language wars intensify:
What is the literal meaning of the questionable word or phrase?
Does that word or phrase have any connotations, that is, associations that are positive or negative?
How does the word correspond to what is actually happening on the ground?
What group (sometimes called a “discourse community”) favors one locution over another, and why?
Is the word or phrase “loaded”? How far does it steer us from neutral?
Does the word or phrase help me see, or does it prevent me from seeing?”
Thinking of what Clark wrote, how do we apply this to our own jobs as agricultural journalists and communicators?
As you prepare your questions for an interview, review them. Ask yourself the following questions:
How leading or neutral is the question, and the words you’re using?
Do the words or phrases stir strong feelings/reactions (think death tax, Mad Cow Disease, Frankenstein foods, illegal immigrants …)
Are your questions loaded with words/ideas your source might not normally use?
Are you intentionally or unintentionally attempting to influence the answers? How and why? What are better options?
This week’s challenge: Think of your “beat” or topic you know best. Now, imagine you’re going to interview a valuable source about a specific topic or story angle. Scribble down some quick questions. Now, look at your list again, word by word — are there any loaded words in your questions? If so, think of ways to rewrite those questions.
Please join us on the Agricultural Communicators Network’s Facebook page and share your feedback!
Shein is DTN Associate Managing Editor in Omaha, Nebraska. She has formerly worked for Capital Press in Oregon, The Western Producer and Regina Leader-Post in Saskatchewan, Canada, and Gemini News Service in London, England.
Elaine Shein can be reached at [email protected]